Feature Interview: John Cunningham with Samantha McLean and Sarah Bell

In our latest feature interview from the AREC2017 Elite Agent Studio, Samantha McLean and Sarah Bell talk to John Cunningham about his takeaways from the event and what agents can do to elevate to professionalism and leading service.

Samantha McLean: Hey everyone, back in the AREC Expo Hall at the Elite Agent Magazine stand. This time we’re almost ready to wrap up. We’ve got John Cunningham, REINSW president and head of the Cunningham ship. How are you going, John?

John Cunningham: Good, really good. Thank you.

Samantha: What we want to do John is just go through with you some of the takeaways and things like that that you’ve taken out of the auditorium for the last couple of days because there’s been some amazing speakers. Who would you say has been your favourite?

John: The person that spoke my language the most was Leonard Steinberg from Compass. He delivered at the end his 12 key points which, to me, talked about the future. The model he’s created is very much almost like an Australian real estate model in New York.

I don’t think a lot of people have studied what he’s actually achieved. It’s absolutely incredible. He’s brought in in presentation and marketing individually to properties and really cut through in a different way.

Beyond that he talks so much more about that moral compass. He actually opened the whole thing with his moral compass. He finished it with the trusted advisor element. The area in between is talking about the professional agent. In other words, how do we actually elevate ourselves above the mire of where we are in terms of the consumer sentiment?

Sarah Bell: How do we elevate to professionalism?

John: That’s a great question. I think there’s been a lot of speakers that have really done that well. I mean Marcus yesterday I think, and he always does, he cuts to the simplicity of what we actually do. If I can remember it throughout my career, whenever I went into a bit of a hole my wife would say, “What’s wrong?” I’d say, “Just in a bit of a hole.” She’d say, “What are you gonna do to get out of that?” I said, “I have to talk to more people.”

It was that simple and now every time I went into a hole I could actually say, “Are you talking to enough people?” It wasn’t just talking to people. It was actually providing them with value. Providing them with an experience that they didn’t expect. Going above and beyond and you asked earlier about, “What do we have to do?

We actually have to think about what do these people need beyond what they think they need? We’ve got a system in our own business which has okay, this is what we’d call the basic outcome required. There’s a desired level and there’s what we call the surprise level. We’re always aiming for the surprise level.

If you only hit the basics well, okay, you delivered the goods, desired was, “Yes, I would have expected that to a certain thing but then you go beyond expectations.”

Samantha: Look after the people and the money will come.

John: I’ve always had that belief. It was just instilled into me when I was young that whatever you do in whatever career that you choose, it will be about how you make people feel.

When you make them feel great and confident and looked after, they are gonna reward you and they’re gonna keep referring you. It’s the simplest business.